MJP Associates Inc. ADV Invests $480,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,135 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $480,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,224 shares of company stock valued at $3,531,872 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $93.44 on Monday. The business's 50 day moving average is $88.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $109.02. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $19.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.18, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.07.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.